Urban areas to be mapped for planned development in Uttarakhand

The Uttarakhand Housing and Urban Development Authority (UHUDA) is set to carry out large-scale mapping of urban areas, after which dedicated plans will be chalked out for planned development in the areas

GIS maps will be used for preparing master plans for urban areas.(HT File/Vinay Santosh Kumar )

The Uttarakhand Housing and Urban Development Authority (UHUDA) is set to carry out large-scale mapping of urban areas, after which dedicated plans will be chalked out for planned development in the areas.

As part of the survey, in the first phase, high resolution satellite imagery will be used for mapping the urban local body areas to prepare GIS (geographic information system) base maps.

In the second phase, master plans will be prepared and related urban and regional planning will be carried out on the basis of the GIS maps.

“Urban areas have developed in a largely unplanned manner in Uttarakhand over the past years,” said Amit Singh Negi, chief administrator of UHUDA.

“To prevent that from continuing, we will be mapping all (previously) unmapped urban body areas in the first stage, based on which (survey details) master plans will chalked out to regulate development activities,” he told Hindustan Times.

According to the 2011 Census, urban areas of Uttarakhand witnessed a big jump of around 42% in terms of decadal population growth, against 11% in the rural areas between 2001 and 2011.

The process of mapping and then creating master plans for urban areas will help in ensuring physical and socio-economic growth of the areas while keeping in mind the environmental factors.

“We are in the process of empanelling firms for carrying out the survey and later for preparing the master plans. Once that is over, we’re hoping to start the survey within the next three weeks and it (survey) is likely to be complete in the next nine months,” Negi said.

The revenue or cadastral maps--which define land ownership of the area--will also be digitized as part of the survey, he said.

“We want to check haphazard growth and irregular expansion of the existing settlements while at the same time keeping an eye on encroachments...it (the exercise) will hence guide the urban growth in the state in a planned manner.”